Beyond Point and Shoot Ken Kay What are the photography basics?

What questions do have? How can I take or create eye catching photos? What are all those shooting modes? What are some curricular integration ideas?

Overview Composition basics Settings Built in accessories that enhance photos Printing

What is the grammar of composition? Rule of Thirds Bulls-eye composition Image your viewfinder is divided into thirds Locate center of interest at intersections Rules are made to be broken

What are leading lines? Draw the viewer's eyes to the point of interest. Examples: fences, roads, tree branches, furrows in the ground

What do Shapes, patterns, and textures add to compositions? Shapes, patterns, and textures produce more attention-grabbing shots. Examples: circles, triangles and the S-curve Patterns and textures exist in both nature and synthetic objects.

The triangle effect

What is that? Abstracts

Do you notice reflections and shadows?

Why shoot into the light? Silhouettes

Subject stands out as different from everything else More visual weight You can use color, texture, or even shape to differentiate your focal point from the rest of the photo. How does contrast matter?

Taking the command of light The art and science of capturing light Light can be altered and controlled with your camera

What are the metering options? Average metering/Multi/Zone: whole scene Center metering: takes a reading from the center image and averages with background Spot: meters object that you focus on Good for backlight objects

What are metering modes? Overall Metering (Multi Segment/Zone Metering) camera attempts to take into consideration everything in your frame it assesses overall lighting from all these zones and takes a best guess by averaging them at times the camera guesses wrong and it’s useful to know how to use the other metering modes

What are metering modes? Spot metering This mode tells the camera to do it’s metering from a very small ’spot’ in the scene. Useful mode for tricky lighting conditions where the whole scene is either darker or lighter than the point that you want to be exposed correctly. For example, in a back lit situation where you’re taking a portrait of someone whose face is a little too dark. Without spot metering in this situation you might end up with a silhouette

What are metering modes? Centered weighted metering tells the camera to focus it’s metering decisions upon the center of your image (although a wider area than spot metering). camera will take information from numerous metering points around the frame but will give more weight to those in the center.

Are are whites the same? Human brain adjusts to the color of light Incandescent light has a red tint Fluorescent light has a green tint What is white balance?

White Balance Settings Sun Shade: some cameras have a shade and cloudy setting Tungsten: incandescent or halogen lighting. Fluorescent Also good setting for forest shots Auto: this setting is useful for most common shooting If you notice a tint, then use white balance modes

White Balance

What is a histogram? Some digital cameras have a histogram menu item of a photo you've just taken. This is a graph displaying the pixel count as a function of brightness. You can determine whether the photo is properly exposed, and take another shot if necessary Properly exposed photos have the largest number of pixels toward the center of the histogram without an overabundance at either end. Underexposed photos have too many pixels at the dark end, whereas overexposed photos have too many pixels at the light end. Now that you understand what all those settings are for, grab your camera and start experimenting

What is Exposure? Amount of light captured by camera Washed out if overexposed Dark if underexposed Normal conditions automatic settings fine

What determines exposure? Lighting conditions Aperture Shutter speed Film speed

Think of your camera as a cup Your goal is to fill the cup with water. Either completely open faucet Or partially open the faucet The water filling the cup is the Exposure The length of time to fill the cup is the Shutter Speed The degree you open the faucet is the Aperture The speed of the water flow is the ISO Setting The Overall Picture

What are the 3 Elements of Exposure? ISO - the measure of a digital camera sensor’s sensitivity to light Aperture - the size of the opening in the lens Shutter Speed - the amount of time that the shutter is open

What is best to control the Exposure? Filling the cup slowly = small aperture and slow shutter speed If you do not choose a long enough time = picture underexposed Filling the cup quickly = large aperture and fast shutter speed So why is it necessary to have two choices? They control different aspects of your photo Aperture controls focus, I.e., depth of field focus Shutter speed controls action. I.e., blur vs. freeze action

How do you choose a shutter speed? To Blur or not? Blur 1/60 or lower Capture action 1/125 or higher

How does direction of movement effect shutter speed?

Water Pressure Water pressure affects the flow speed ISO setting High ISO = high light sensitivity = need less light Low ISO = low light sensitivity = more light needed Auto good except when you have a different vision for a shot Then you will want to adjust settings that control exposure What about the ISO?

What are the two types of zooms?

Shooting Modes Auto: default Landscape: max. depth of field Foreground and background in focus Portrait: face in focus Action: fastest shutter speed Sunset: strong backlighting/high contrast Some cameras have night settings for landscape and portraits Aperture Priority: automatically sets an appropriate shutter speed Shutter Priority: automatically picks appropriate aperture Best Shot: Quickly set-ups for the above Especially good for night Some cameras have a night setting option separate Manual: chose both aperture and speed

Aperture: depth of field Large aperture (lower f-stop) Shallow depth of field Background out of focus Small aperture (higher f-stop) Greater depth of field Background in focus

Shutter Speeds

Focus Lock Spot focus technique Focusing on a subject not in the center Frame subject within focus area Push the shutter halfway down Reposition your frame

Bracket your shots for best results When unsure about aperture setting Take 2 or 3 shots at 1/2 to 1 stop intervals

Optional Shooting Modes The following modes may be in your menu separately of in Best Shot options Landscape Captures detailed scenes of distant objects, such as mountains or city skylines. Camera selects a high f-number, increasing the depth of field so objects near and far away remain crisp and in focus. Steady Shoot Avoids blurry photos due to camera shake or a moving subject. Best used when lighting is at a low level such as indoors. Your camera increases its sensitivity to light (ISO) resulting in a shorter exposure time. This helps freeze motion for sharp, clear photos. Panorama Captures grand landscapes or group pictures where you need to take a wider shot than one image can capture. Stitch up to five shots from right to left (or left to right) into one seamless photo. Night Portrait Provides clear, focused shots of people while capturing background lights at night. This mode uses the flash to ensure your subject is well lit, followed by a long exposure for bringing out background detail. A tripod is recommended when using this mode. Night Landscape Captures dramatic color and detail at night and in other and other low-light situations. This mode uses a long exposure (longer than auto mode) with no flash for rich colors and detail at night. A tripod is necessary in this mode.

Burst or continuous mode

Film Speed: ISO setting Here are some settings where a higher ISO is desirable: No-flash zones: Low-light concerts, museums, recitals, and churches where flash photography is not allowed Candle-lit scenes: Christmas or holiday events or birthday parties where the subject is blowing out the candles in a dark room, which would be ruined by a bright flash Indoor sporting events: Photographing a moving subject in limited light where stopping the action is your main goal.

Grain increases as the ISO increases Use a higher ISO speed where flash would ruin a scene A good rule of thumb is to set your ISO to 100 when shooting outdoors, and 400 indoors.

Manual Mode: the driver’s seat Greatest creativity and choice Unlike aperture priority mode or shutter priority mode, the camera doesn't determine any of the settings to help you.

Exposure Compensation Advanced control EV Compensation allows you to adjust the image brightness in difficult lighting conditions. Increasing the EV Compensation allows the camera to restore the original brightness of white objects in an overly bright scene. Try increasing the steps to get a more natural appearance. Decreasing the EV Compensation will darken the scene, restoring the original black tones to black. Shoreline ice photographed without exposure compensation and with +1 stop of exposure compensation.

Red Eye Removal Menu Flash button (usually near flower) will cycle through options Flash on Flash off Red eye: double flash

Sharpness Sharpening increases the contrast of focused image and background Turning off sharpness softens harsh edges Smooth the wrinkles on a person’s face

Saturation Color saturation = how vivid colors appear Good for autumn foliage or when shooting in dull grey day Too saturated can look garish or Saturated settings: High: bold colors Loss of detail Can adjust saturation with image-editing software Medium: default Low: soft, less intense colors Often used for portraits

Dawn and Sunset

Sunsets Meter on the sky near the sun Underexposure leads to vivid colors Cloudy daylight setting also punches up the color Experiment with f-stops Try shooting a few minutes after sun drops below the horizon

Lens Settings Most digital cameras have zoom lens 35mm to 105 mm Often you can buy auxiliary lenses

Getting in Close Macro or close-up Sharp photos up to about 5 inches away Use LCD monitor is more accurate

Tripod Dim light Flash not natural